Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party is to hold a special central committee meeting tomorrow morning to dismiss 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe as its leader, two ZANU-PF sources have said.
It is understood the meeting will also reinstate ousted vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, and remove Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace, from the leadership of the ZANU-PF Women's League.
Thousands of Zimbabweans celebrating the expected fall of Mr Mugabe earlier marched towards his residence in the capital Harare, live television pictures showed.
Soldiers had earlier prevented people from marching on the residence of he embattled leader.
Demonstrators had staged a sit-down protest on the road after being halted by troops around 200 metres from the gates to the complex.
Hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of the capital singing, dancing and hugging soldiers in an outpouring of elation as Mr Mugabe's rule comes to an end.
Men, women and children ran alongside the armoured cars and troops that stepped in this week to oust the only ruler Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980.
Mr Mugabe has been under house arrest in his lavish 'Blue Roof' compound in Harare, from where he has watched support from his Zanu-PF party, security services and people evaporate in less than three days.
Mr Mugabe's nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, has said that the elderly leader and his wife were "ready to die for what is correct" and had no intention of stepping down in order to legitimise what he described as a coup.
Speaking from a secret location in South Africa, Mr Zhuwao said Mr Mugabe had hardly slept since the military seized power on Wednesday but his health was otherwise "good".
On Harare's streets, emotions ran high as Zimbabweans spoke of a second liberation for the former British colony, alongside their dreams of political and economic change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship.
"These are tears of joy," one man said, holding aloft the Zimbabwean flag, "I've been waiting all my life for this day. Free at last. We are free at last."
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans have flooded the streets of Harare celebrating the expected fall of President Robert Mugabe pic.twitter.com/4ppwYRyOJ3
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Zimbabweans abroad were also awaiting the end of Mr Mugabe's rule.
Hundreds living in Britain gathered outside the country's embassy in central London calling on the leader to step aside.
"I am happy today because Bob Mugabe is about to go. He must go. At least if he goes, we'll have a change of president after so many years of injustice," said one woman.
For some Africans, Mr Mugabe remains a nationalist hero, the continent's last independence leader and a symbol of its struggle to throw off the legacy of decades of colonial subjugation.
To others, however, he was reviled as a dictator happy to resort to violence to retain power and to run a once-promising economy into the ground.
Although Mr Mugabe has been digging in his heels in the face of army pressure to quit, he appears to have run out of road, devoid of domestic or international support.
Political sources and intelligence documents seen by Reuters said Mr Mugabe's exit is likely to pave the way for an interim unity government led by Mr Mnangagwa, a life-long Mugabe aide and former security chief known as "The Crocodile".
Stabilising the free-falling economy will be the number one priority, the documents said.
The United States said it was looking forward to a "new era" in Zimbabwe, while President Ian Khama of neighbouring Botswana said Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region and should resign at once.
In a sign of the depth of his demise, Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF yesterday called for him to go, according to The Herald, the state newspaper that has served as a loyal mouthpiece for nearly four decades.
ZANU-PF branches in all ten provinces had also called for the resignation of Mr Mugabe's wife, the first lady whose ambitions to succeed her husband outraged the military and much of the country.
Mr Mugabe's only public appearance since the military took over on Wednesday was at a university graduation ceremony yesterday morning.
Decked out in blue and yellow academic gowns, he appeared tired, at one point falling asleep in his chair.
A senior member of the ZANU-PF ruling party said it was only a matter of time before he agreed to his own departure.
"If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on Sunday," the source said. "When that is done, it's impeachment on Tuesday."
